


Ore and lore

by ZappuelLightningrod



Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon (Main Video Game Series), Pocket Monsters: Omega Ruby & Alpha Sapphire | Pokemon Omega Ruby & Alpha Sapphire Versions
Genre: Action/Adventure, Drama, F/M, Humor, Major Character Injury, Mystery, Mystery Character(s), Mystery Pokemon
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-08-16
Updated: 2018-08-16
Packaged: 2019-06-11 09:05:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 21,364
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15312120
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ZappuelLightningrod/pseuds/ZappuelLightningrod
Summary: The past is a sensitive thing. It ultimately shapes the future. All decisions and actions have consequences that are unavoidable in times to come. The one thing it cannot truly shape is the only thing that can shape itself, regardless of time. Yourself.Alternatively...After a strange man in a purple mask attacks Zinnia, Steven Stone finds a strange rock with properties unlike anything on earth. The strange man and mineral are connected in some way, each holding some answers to the other. So, Steven and Zinnia decide to set aside their differences to find out the answer to this strange mystery.





	Ore and lore

About a week passed since the Litleonid Meteor shower, and everyone was resuming their normal lives after the near mass extinction of the planet. Brendan and Wally were at the Battle resort, training their hardest to become as strong as they could be. May and Lisia were performing against each other at a Pokemon Contest in Lilycove City. Archie and Maxie were working together to help fix the calamity they've done, through various means. And Steven Stone was in Mossdeep city, doing the usual things he needed to be doing out of the house, such as grocery shopping. All was getting back to normal on the island region of Hoenn.

"HEY! WATCH WHERE YOU'RE GOING, YA CRAZY BIMBO!"

Well, almost everything.

The crazy bimbo that man was referring to was a young woman by the name of Zinnia. Under most circumstances, such an outburst over someone nearly running into someone else would be considered overreacting. However, the fact that she was riding an 8 foot Tyrantrum would probably make the outburst somewhat valid.

"Ah, relax! I've survived being stomped on by this thing since I was a kid!" Zinnia shouted back at him. While this was the truth, the last time this pokemon actually stepped on her was way back when it was a Tyrunt. There's a bit of a difference between a 60 pound dinosaur and a 600 pound dinosaur.

Regardless, Zinnia was riding her fossil pokemon across the region, all the way from Meteor Falls, with a small whismur holding onto her tightly. She had decided to wait to ride her Salamence until she couldn't travel on land anymore to give her pokemon some time out of their pokeball. Specifically, her Tyrantrum. She had the Dinosaur Pokemon since it was first born in Rustboro City. Well, technically it was "Revived" there, but that was semantics.

Zinnia eventually crossed off of Route 121 and into Lilycove city. This was the last place she could ride her Tyrantrum until they were in another region. From here on out, it was her Salamence's time to shine. She returned her pokemon to her pokeball, before walking casually through the city. It was nice. Peaceful. A good note to leave the region on. Even if she wasn't the one to save it, she was glad she at least played a crucial role in saving it.

"Mum?" Her Whismur murmured, taking a look around the city now that they weren't traveling at 50 miles per hour. She got a particularly good look from atop her trainer's head.

"You okay, sweetie?" Zinnia asked the purple Pokemon, petting her on the head gently.

"Murrr…" Aster murmured, nuzzling against her hand.

"You're adorable. Stop giving me cavities." Zinnia said in a sarcastic tone, "That's what the snacks we need to get are for."

Aster's eyes lit up. She jumped from atop Zinnia's head onto the ground and started jumping up and down excitedly. The whismur loved snacks with all of her tiny, little heart. Chips, candy, pretzels, Goldeen Crackers, she loved them all. Zinnia laughed loudly, kneeling down and picking up the excited pokemon.

"Okay, okay, calm down. Now, don't make a big scene in here. Let ol' Zinnia get what we need, okay?" She acknowledged, looking down at her pokemon. Aster tilted her head to the side, giving Zinnia an adorably innocent bewildered face. Zinnia squeezed the round pokemon tightly before walking towards the apartment store.

"What did I say about giving me cavities?" She teased playfully. Aster let out a small noise in reply to her trainer.

* * *

The doors to the mart opened up automatically to the young Draconid as she approached the store. In her subconscious, she thanked whoever came up with the invention, allowing her to hold onto her Whismur in her arms. She examined the store carefully, taking in the indoor area. The teal tiled floor reflected the ceiling lights that lit up the store. There was also a red carpet that went from the main entrance of the establishment up to the counter, and diverged to a flight of stairs that led to the second floor and an elevator, that could lead to any floor. Zinnia would probably not need either, as there were a few rows of aisles set up by shelves filled with food, medicine and pokeballs. Things that the average wandering trainer would need to buy. There were a few customers in the store already, although a couple of them were giving odd looks to something out of sight. Zinnia didn't really pay close attention, however. She was here for one thing and one thing alone. A ton of junk food.

She walked into one of the aisles of the store, finding her way around. From the looks of things, she got lucky and chose the food aisle first. In it there were many different edible items that one could keep in normal temperatures. Nothing like meat, or vegetables that could go bad if left outside of a refrigerator. Mainly snack foods and simple things to keep up one's metabolism while on a journey, like trail mix, jerky, freeze dried vegetables, and snack foods in fun sized bags. Which Zinnia never understood why they were called fun sized. You're getting less than a normal bag, how is that in any way fun?

"Whis! Whis!" Aster immediately began shouting and pointing to something on the shelf to her left. Zinnia looked over and found what Aster was pointing towards. Cheesy Goldeen crackers. One of Aster's favorite foods.

"It's okay, Aster. We'll get them, we'll-" Zinnia's sentence was cut short, as something quickly moved behind them, almost knocking her off her her feet. She glanced at it to see a small black creature with yellow markings. The only thing that she could think it was would be an Umbreon, but she didn't get a good look at the creature. She shrugged and lifted Aster up to the cheesy snack, who then proceeded to grab as many bags as her little arm could carry.

"Whoa, Aster, whoa! Not that many!"

After what seemed like an eternity of debating what snacks to get, the two had finally decided on what foods to get. Goldeen crackers, a family sized bag of chips, a small bag of pretzels, and a bag of unpopped popcorn for one night's dessert. Stargazing is surprisingly made better with popcorn.

Zinnia held Aster tightly with what else she could, leaving smaller things to Aster. Not the Goldeens. Zinnia knew better than to leave those in her hands. Last time she did, Aster ate them all up, and she had to pay for more than she could. The cashier let her off the hook, though, considering she only owed them a couple of cents.

The Draconid made her way to the front counter of the store. There stood two clerks behind the counter, one with brown hair, the other with slightly less brown hair. Both wearing the same blue and white striped uniform For their job at the department store.

"Did you find everything easily, ma'am?" The store clerk asked her politely.

"Yep, I found everythin…" She trailed off her answer, noticing something to her side. The other store clerk was looking at it too-or rather, staring at it-with a more confused look on his face. Zinnia turned her head slowly to see what exactly caught her and the store clerk's eyes. Her own eyes matched with the other clerk when she saw.

Standing beside her was a strangely dressed man. A really strangely dressed man. Purple seemed to be his favorite color if she had to guess, because he was dressed head to toe in the color. He seemed to have a long coat that went down to his lower legs, the upper half on his torso held together by a yellow belt. There seemed to be long, thin pieces of cloth wrapping around his torso as well, all coming together by what seemed to be a large ring-like emblem. His silver hair seemed to hold a strange bird-like mask that came down and shielded most of his face. A pair of purple gauntlets with yellow wrist bands seemed to be perched upon his forearms as well. He seemed to be reading a magazine, but neither Zinnia nor the other clerk really seemed to care for his choices of literature.

Zinnia had never seen someone dress so outlandish. Closest thing that she really could think of was Shelly's uniform, but even that had some purpose to it. She tried to break her gaze from the strangely dressed individual, placing her food items up on the counter. The clerk began to ring them up, seemingly not caring about the man beside them.

"Whis?" Aster piped up. She was worried since the clerk took their snack foods. She always was worried when they payed for their snacks. She didn't seem to quite get that they need to let him ring up their purchase. She thought that he was going to take them for himself. Zinnia looked down and began petting her pokemon on the top of the head, calming the pokemon.

With a final ding, the total came to the man on the cash register, "That'll be 900$ please."

Zinnia let one arm go off of Aster and reached into her back pocket. She pulled out all of her money from her pocket, which was not all that much. After a small counting session, she came out to having about 902 pokedollars. The clerk took the money and placed it in the cash register. He pulled out two pokedollars to return, until Zinnia spoke out, "Keep the change."

The man smiled and nodded, placing the money back in the register. Zinnia grabbed all of her stuff and walked out of the store, giving one last look to the strange man before leaving.

A good several seconds passed after she left, the other clerk still not leaving his gaze. The other clerk looked over to the man, not seeming to react at all to him. At least, not in the same way that the other clerk and Zinnia did.

Suddenly, without warning, a light shone beneath the man, as if someone had just opened a window outside beneath him. And as if someone had just opened up a trap door beneath him, he fell. The one clerk reacted, his eyes widening and letting out a small yell. The purple dressed man had vanished before their eyes, leaving no trace behind. Silence filled the shop, until the other clerk spoke out.

"Hey, he didn't pay for for that." he declared, talking about the magazine he kept with him as he vanished. The other clerk simply shot him a look.

"Yes, Clark,  _that's_  what we should be taking away from this event." He said, sarcastically.

* * *

After buying her snacks for the road, Zinnia made her way to the shore of the city. To her left lied Team Aqua's hideout. Team Magma's lied on the Jagged Pass that connected Mt. Chimney and Route 112. Memories of her swiping both Archie's and Maxie's keystones popped in her head. Both of them were expecting a Pokemon battle, but Zinnia hadn't the time. She took them both by surprise by taking them the way she did. She lifted Maxie's glasses and poked him in both eyes before making off with the Mega specks he wore, and she had to outright suplex Archie for his anchor. Once she gave them back, they agreed on stories to tell their teams, just so that way they wouldn't lose respect. Although there were still some Team Aqua grunts who liked to believe she kicked Archie in the shin. Which she did as well.

"Mum?" Cried out a small pokemon. She looked down to her side to see her Whismur, Aster, looking up at her trainer. Zinnia looked down at the little purple pokemon and laughed.

"Don't worry about me, Aster. I'm just taking a trip down memory lane before we head out." Zinnia said, pulling out a pokeball.

She looked down upon the ball, hoping that it was the right one. She hadn't the best of luck when it came to selecting Pokeballs, more often than not throwing out the wrong Pokemon in a fight. For this reason, she tried her best to train everyone up as much as she could, keeping nearly everyone on equal level. It's also the reason she normally kept Aster outside of her Pokeball, so that she wouldn't accidentally throw out her little Pokemon. She threw her Pokeball in hand and out popped a large blue dragon with red wings.

"Hey there, Salamence." She greeted her Pokemon, rubbing him on the top of his head. Salamence roared lightly, before Zinnia jumped onto his back, Aster following. He glanced back at her, eye slightly twitching, clearly upset at the young woman.

"We need a ride, and we need a ride fast." Zinnia explained to her pokemon. She griped onto the back of his neck and extended her legs out to the sides of his neck,, wrapping them around the throat of the pokemon, "So, let's get flying!"

"Whis! Mur! Whis!" Aster repeated.

Her Salamence eyed her intensely, knowing that he would be ridden once again after that. He hated being ridden. Most trainers used their flying Pokemon to get from place to place all the time, but for that to be of relative ease, they had to know the HM move, Fly. And for legal use, one also needed to own a few Gym badges, with this particular region needing six. Why this was the case, Zinnia didn't know, and considering she didn't really want to sign up for the Pokemon Leauge, she didn't really care either. She knew her Salamence could fly her from place to place, considering he was the strongest one on her team. She knew he could carry her easily, even without fly. Didn't stop him from disliking the experience.

"Come on, just one flight. I'll even Mega Evolve you so it'll be easier…"

Salamence stared at her for a few seconds before rolling his eyes and lifting his wings. He began to flap them to get off of the ground, which wasn't easy with his trainer on his back. His own strength was less the issue and more that he was trying to not hit her with his huge wings. This was only a problem for a few seconds, as Zinnia gripped her ankle bracelet and began activating her Mega stone.

Salamence's wings grew together to form a singular glider wing, With Zinnia doing her best to stay on top of it. Normally riding a glider from the top would be a bone headed mistake, but since this was a living Pokemon that could control itself fairly easily, she knew she would be fine.

"Okay, buddy, let's go to Mossdeep!" She shouted to her companion pokemon. The Salamence gave a mighty roar before taking off at breakneck pace. The cool breeze flew through Zinnia's hair as she crossed route 124. Aster gripped onto her back tightly, Zinnia's cape flowing above her head. She glanced downwards to see all the people swimming in the ocean route. Training their pokemon or just having a good time. Some of them were even riding their pokemon. She knew for a fact that she saw one dude riding on a Sharpedo like a jetski.

The sight brought a smile to her face. Seeing everyone in the region at peace, not a care in the world. Safe from a giant meteorite's destruction. While the end result of the meteor's destruction wasn't what she had exactly intended, it still ended well enough for her. After passing on the title of the Lorekeeper to the regional champion, she had very little reason to stay here in Hoenn. Now she was titleless. Her place in the world was placed upon someone else, with her still here. So, the way both she and her grandmother saw it, she needed to go out and find herself a new one. She was still trying to figure out where exactly to start on this whole adventure. She supposed it would be best to just go with the wind on something like this. After all, when looking for your place in the world, does one really have a place they know where to start?

Her Salamence gave her a mighty roar when they were soaring over Mossdeep. From the sky, she could see the rooftops of every building in the city. Even the Space Center. She quickly reminded herself of when she smashed the Link Cable. Regardless of how the situation turned out, she knew she probably wouldn't be incredibly welcomed by anyone in that building. This was also the city that was home to the famous Steven Stone, another person she knew wouldn't be all too happy to see her. Luckily for her, she wouldn't be landing there.

Her thoughts swayed over to Brendan, the current Champion of Hoenn and lorekeeper. She gave him the title when he captured Rayquaza, a feat that no other human had accomplished, at least as of now. He even went into space and destroyed the meteorite that had been plaguing Hoenn for 3,000 years, and apparently had stopped another one from ever coming. Still, he had to keep his duty as the new lorekeeper, which was pretty easy now that a lot of the big events had passed. All he really needed to do was to keep the legends of Mega Rayquaza pure, and untainted by any addon events, and then choose another Lorekeeper before he passes. Really, not all too hard for him, the current champion.

Suddenly, without warning, a huge flash of lightning struck the three airborne entities. Salamence shouted in pain, with Zinnia and Aster screaming and shaking from the current volts of electricity coursing through their bodies. Salamence was able to resist the element, so the pain was not as great for him. Resisting the pain, he tried to look at where the strike of Thunder came from. It was a bright, clear day, with not a dark cloud in the sky. Another strike came without warning to the dragon, though this one was not of the electrical variety. Rather, this was a massive blow to the back, which folded his wings upwards, causing him to lose the wind beneath his wing. Zinnia and Aster flew off of Salamence, plummeting to the earth below. Salamence tried to fly close to them and catch them, but it was then that he felt a sharp pain to his neck.

Aster was the luckiest of the three, landing in water, as opposed to any form of land. The impact still did it's damage, but she managed alright. She floated to the surface of the water, looking for her trainer and giant, scary, but secretly a teddy bear, dragon. She saw Salamence in the air, falling to the ground, landing with a thud in sand. Aster began shouting and tried to swim over to it with her tiny little hands. However, she didn't get very far, feeling a kick to the side of her head, sending her out of the water, and into the rocky shore of Mossdeep. Her movements from then on were weak, and slow. She looked behind herself to see a giant golden ring, shrinking where she once was.

Meanwhile, Zinnia came down with a splash, landing on the watery shore of Mossdeep. The sand was covered by a thin layer of saltwater, though this did very little for Zinnia's landing. She lifted herself up, coughing the little bit of sea water she took in from her landing. She opened her eyes, water blurring her vision. To her side, she heard a splash similar to her own, only louder and more wet. She looked over to the sound and saw her salamence, laying on the water covered sand. She immediately got to her feet and began running towards her pokemon.

"Salamence!" She shouted, trying to run through the foot deep water, her shoes now completely drenched. The closer she got, the more wounds she could make out on her poor dragon. Before she could reach it, however, a new pokemon came down from the sky, landing between her and her pseudo-legend.

The new pokemon was yellow, with blood red eyes. Its gaze met her eyes, seeming to tower over her. The claws of this pokemon brushed against the soft sand underwater, as it bared its fangs. This creature was vicious, with a bloodthirsty look in its eye. Zinnia's teeth gritted together, but made no sudden movements. She slowly moved her hand behind her, reaching her hand into her back pocket, until she heard clapping from behind her.

She turned her head, looking behind her, with a quick glance to the creature in front of her to make sure it didn't pounce. Behind her, slowly clapping his hands, as if to imply sarcastic praise, was the strangely dressed man from the pokemart earlier, dressed in purple. .

"Well, it looks like you managed to make it through my onslaught, Zinnia." Said a man, bearing a grin, "I would say I'm impressed, but knowing what you can handle, I can't say I am."

Zinnia jumped at the mention of her name, "How do you know who I am?"

"Ah, ah, ah. No spoilers." The man said, waving his finger at her. He quickly snapped his fingers, inherently ordering his pokemon to attack.

Quickly, the pokemon jumped, pouncing towards Zinnia at breakneck speed, giving the Draconid very little time to react. She was pinned down to the ground by the creature's claws pushing down on her chest, her head almost entirely submerged in the water, back now covered in wet sand. With the little freedom of mobility she had, she pulled out a pokeball out of her back pocket. She had no idea what pokemon she picked, but she had to act quickly. The next thing she knew, in between her and the vicious pokemon was a slimey dragon that was able to lift up the vicious pokemon above it's head. With all of its force, the pokemon threw the other across the field. It did not get very far, but it was off of Zinnia, and that was all that mattered at the moment.

"Thanks, Goodra. You really saved me there." Zinnia said, giving her pokemon a thumbs up. The Goodra replied with a gurgling noise, before turning her attention back to the strange yellow pokemon.

Suddenly, Zinnia received a blow to the gut, as a fist came right in front of her, jabbing her in the gut. But no one was in front of her. How did that work? Zinnia took a step back in shock, holding onto her stomach tightly from the blow. She glanced upwards and saw a purple gloved fist coming out of what appeared to be a golden ring. The inside of the ring also appeared different, not matching the background around it. Zinnia's eyes widened when she saw, an audible gasp escaped her mouth before a swift kick met her head, the foot coming from another golden ring that appeared beside her.

Zinnia landed on the liquid covered ground again. She lifted her upper body to see the purple man slowly appearing form the rings. He lifted his hand that he punched Zinnia with up, and used his other to pull his glove tightly down onto it. Goodra growled at the man, its antennae now beginning to spark with electricity. The man snapped his fingers and on command the yellow pokemon charged forwards, slamming right into Goodra, sending it back way behind Zinnia. The dragon fell to the ground, not getting back to its feet.

"Goodra!" Zinnia shouted, looking back to her dragon. She looked back towards the man, only to see he had disappeared. Zinnia blinked, before trying to get herself in a ready stance. This only went over so well, though, as another ring appeared right in front of her, grabbing her by the leg. It then took off into the air, leaving the both of them to be airborne. Zinnia, thinking quickly, used her other leg to kick inside of the ring. The hand let go in pain, and the ring disappeared, and Zinnia fell to the ground, landing once again with a slowly got to her feet once more, this time the man appearing right in front of her, rubbing his jaw.

"Man, you throw a good kick." He said in a painful tone.

"That ring…" Zinnia said, out of breath, "Where did you.. Find him?"

"It's genderless, Zinnia. You of all people should know that…" He retorted with a smile.

"That doesn't answer my question." Zinnia said, her stance going somewhat limp.

"Yeah, I didn't answer it. Kinda want that stuff to be a secret, y'know."

Zinnia clenched her fists tightly, before letting out a small smirk, "Well, in that case… looks like I'm gonna have to get that secret out of ya, one way or another…"

The man before her chuckled, "Oh, boy. A world famous beatdown from Zinnia. I've been looking forwards to this."

With that, Zinnia charged towards the man, full force, the water doing very little to slow her down. She jumped high and came close to him, gripping him on the arm, pulling her other one back for a punch. She sprang it forwards, with the man giving a smirk before making a ring appear in front of his face, sending her own punch against her. Once again, in the gut. He brought his free arm up and smacked her upside the head, sending her to the side. Water kicked up from her landing once more. He snapped his fingers and opened another larger ring above her. He folded both of his hands together and lifted them up high, ready to bring them down. Zinnia reacted quickly, though, and pulled in both of her legs before springing them up for a mighty kick to the jaw once more. She also jumped with her arms through the portal before it shut.

Zinnia landed on her feet, her back turned to the purple man, who was off his balance. She turned quickly and began to deliver a series of punches to him, rushing him down to the watery sand as much as she could. With a quick motion, the man brought his hand to the side of her head, this time grabbing onto it, as he tried to dunk her under the water. This only worked so well, as she did the same to him. Both of them held each other under water for a good thirty seconds before they both started to feel limp. Suddenly, a portal appeared beneath the both of them and they fell though it. It was positioned sideways on the other side, so they both ended up standing in their weird position they were in. The man threw Zinnia to the ground in a splash.

The man lifted his leg up and sent it through another ring, jamming his boost into her chest. He commanded the ring on his leg to lower, but the ring above Zinnia stayed in place. The ring went back his his leg once more and his boot came thrashing downwards onto Zinnia. He repeated this motion until Zinnia decided to grip him by the ankle. When he brought the ring to the lower portion of his leg, Zinnia was brought up with his foot. She tossed herself to the side, dodging his boot, as it hit the wet, sandy shoreline. She quickly got to her feet and rushed at him again, fists clenched and ready to punch him repeatedly.

The masked man got into a fighting stance and sloppily began throwing a punch. Zinnia brought her arm up to block it quickly, but by the time his fist would collide with her arm, it entered a portal and his her somewhere else. That somewhere else was her throat. Extreme pain followed, with more to come as the man gripped her by the collar of her shirt and brought her head down to his extended knee. He repeated this action, giving Zinnia a bloody nose in the process. As she was brought down once more, she grabbed the man by his head and brought his head down as she was being let up, smashing his head with her own. The man's grip on her loosened and she kicked him landed on his backside and Zinnia rushed for man reacted quickly, and opened up another portal. Out of this one, however, was not a fist or a boot, but a tree. A tree landed right in between her and him. Zinnia nearly got crushed by the incoming object, stopping just before it hit her.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, you're using trees!?" Zinnia shouted.

"Coming from the girl who survived a Tauros' onslaught, I think it's pretty fair." The man said, clearly exasperated as he got to his feet.

Zinnia blinked, "What?"

"I'm sorry, did I remember that wrong? It's the heat of the battle, I think you can forgive me!" He shouted, kicking the tree over, trying to squash her underneath it.

She jumped out of the way, before running up to him and grabbing him by the coat. Instead of bringing him close and trying to get him to talk, however, she just lifted him up and threw him to the ground beside her. She then jumped above him, intending to use all of her body weight as an attack. He reacted quickly, and had a portal appear above himself. She went through it and found herself high in the air, miles and miles above the island she was just on.

Zinnia reacted quickly, pulling out a pokeball from her back pocket. This was either Noivern or Altaria, so she could fly to safety, or her Tyrantrum and she would fall in style. However, before she could release the pokemon, she felt a grip to her foot tightly. She glanced behind her to see a portal opening up behind her, with his arm gripping her leg. Quickly, she was pulled through by his swinging arm. Her face met with the fallen tree as he slammed her right into it. She was sent skidding across the sand, until she finally stopped in her tracks, the sea level much thinner than it was where they fought.. She slowly tried to get up, until his boot slammed down onto her back, sending her into the sand once more. A few quick punches escaped from various appearing rings, until she laid down in the sand, not getting back up.

The man stood there, out of breath, clenching his fists tightly from a barrage of punches he just delivered. She laid there, unmoving. Was that it? Was she dead? He did not let his guard down, as he walked towards her. He eventually stood over Zinnia. Her eyes were open, but just barely. Her chest went up and down rhythmically, but not the same rhythm as before. She took much slower, much deeper breaths.

"Well…" He spoke, with heavy breaths, "That was hard… but it looks like I win…"

A thunderbolt quickly flashed next to him, striking his pokemon, with a mighty roar. He jumped a little bit as the flash of energy sparked. He looked over to where the electric attack came from. Far off, he saw Zinnia's Goodra, barely standing from his pokemon's previous attack. Her breathing was heavy, and slow, gurgling loudly. He scoffed and snapped his fingers.

"Knock that slugma dragon out already."

With that,his pokemon roared and bolted towards goodra. The dragon could barely react as she felt a sharp pain slam her in her large gut. Swiftly, she fell to the floor, not getting back up. Zinnia couldn't turn around to see her pokemon, but she could hear it. A Loud gurgling shriek escaped from her mouth before a thud mixed with a splash following. Her eyes widened as far as they could before noticing the man kneeling down beside her. She gave him a dirty look as she coughed out.

"So.. you're gonna kill me now…" She said, coughing.

"You guessed it."

"Can you at least…" Zinnia's question was interrupted by her own coughing fit, but she continued once it died down, "Tell me whatever evil plan you got?"

"Oh, baby..." He said in a tone that was a mixture of caring and sarcasm, bringing his hand down to her cheek. "No."

Zinnia slightly cringed as he placed his gloved hand on her face. She could tell he was toying with her before she died at his hands. He continued speaking, keeping his sarcastic caring tone, "Every time someone tells their plan before killing someone, help comes in the nick of time, and saves the day. And then all my secrets are out. I've got a lot of plans that need to be kept a secret."

He held her chin with three fingers, bringing her face to look as his own, masked face. "Lemme get one last look at you…"

Zinnia's eyes widened a little, giving a more confused face. Now this was just starting to get creepy. She quickly changed her expression, crinkling her face, not giving him the satisfaction of a good look at her. It was a little hard, as she started to feel a little woozy, a lot of the wounds starting to really kick in for her, her adrenaline dropping.

"Allright. I'm good." He said, dropping her head to the ground with a splash. He snapped his fingers, and almost as soon as he was finished, the creature bolted right in front of him, the nearly unconscious Zinnia at its feet.

"Finish her off." He commanded, in a dangerous voice. The pokemon gripped her head with its three claws tightly. But not tight enough to crush her turned her onto her back and stood one leg on her throat, choking the draconid. It opened its mouth wide, showing its razor sharp fangs. It held its head back, ready to lunge forwards and jam its sharp teeth right into her abdomen, killing her in the process. Zinnia braced for the rip and tear of her flesh and organs, before the sweet embrace of death.

Suddenly, something at the speed of a dump truck smacked right into the pokemon, causing it to skid across the water, right into Route 127, until it hit a rock and fell into the water. The man looked out to the route, his mouth agape, his eyes widened underneath his mask. Zinnia began coughing up, taking in as deep of a breath as she could, with her weak body.

"What do you think you're doing?" A voice asked from behind them. The man clothed in purple turned around to see who spoke. Standing there was a silver-haired man wearing a black suit. His silver eyes focused on the masked man. It was none other than the son of the president of the Devon corporation, Steven Stone. The silver haired man began walking down the stairs, taking in the battle area of the shore, followed closely by Aster. He noticed that Salamence laid on the ground a good number of yards away from the two, with a Goodra not too far off from where the man was standing.

"This Whismur found me and brought me here. And I can see why now." Steven said. He took a glance down at the Whismur's trainer. He got a good look at the young woman, and recognized her immediately, "Wait.. you're that woman… the one who smashed the Link Cable!"

Aster began running towards the nearly unconscious Zinnia. She leapt onto Zinnia's stomach, causing her some pain to her abdomen. But she let out a small laugh as the small pokemon began nestling into her. She held her pokemon as tightly as she could, which was not very much.

"Aster, I'm glad you're…" Zinnia coughed between her words, "Safe…" With that she fell into unconsciousness.

The masked man stood there, looking down at the trainer and her pokemon, before bursting out laughing. Everyone's eyes shifted towards the purple cloaked man, giggling in hysterics.

"Oh, of course," The man breathed out with a smirk, and then letting out a loud chuckle, "Here I was talking about how cliche it is for help to come while I explain my plans, and here, help comes."

"Plans?" Steven asked aloud, "What plans?"

The man turned to face Steven, "Like I'm gonna tell you. I didn't even tell little miss Lorekeeper over here. I'm not gonna let some unergrown dragon tamer or some famous rock collector get in my way."

Steven glared at the man, taking personal offense to that comment. He might be an enthusiast of minerals and stones, but he took some offense to the term "Rock collector." As if he just picked up any rock he thought was cool and put it in his pocket. In the back of his mind, however, he knew that it was intended to be an offensive comment, so he tried to set the term aside for now and tried to focus on the current situation.

"I take it you did this to her?" Steven asked.

"So what if I did?" He asked in retaliation, "What are you gonna do about it?"

"Well…" Steven trailed off. A whooshing sound was heard above them, and quickly descending down right behind Steven was a silver and gold pokemon, made of metal with four giant limbs, floating off the ground. His Signature pokemon, his Mega Metagross. It bellowed loudly with it's metallic vocal cords.

"I suppose I'd have to take you into the authorities for questioning. You do appear to be at the scene of an attempted murder." Steven said, patting his Metagross on the arm.

The purple dressed man placed his fingers on his chin, nodding his head, "Fair point, fair point… Counterpoint…."

With the snap of his fingers, a pokemon lept out from behind them and struck behind the Metagross, sending it and Steven forwards a little. The man in purple began making a mad dash towards the ocean route of 127, his new accomplice pokemon running alongside him.

"Good job, buddy!" He shouted to the new arrival. The pokemon barked a reply to him, clearly proud.

Steven got to his feet and gestured at the man for his Metagross, "Metagross! Keep them in place!"

His Metagross shouted as it's eyes began to glow light blue. The man became enveloped in a dim blue light matching Metagross' eyes, but his accomplice did not.

"That pokemon must be a Dark type.." Steven muttered, before shouting, "Metagross! Use Power-Up Punch!"

Metagross extended its claws and gripped them together, forming a fist. It moved carefully out from behind Steven, readying itself to charge at mach speeds at the pokemon. The man looked back at Metagross and then back at his own pokemon. He had a look of determination plastered on his face. The man brought his arm to his side before flinging it away from his pokemon, opening a large portal. Steven's eyes widened as the golden ring appeared.

"Quick Attack! Now!" He shouted to his pokemon.

As if he had ordered Steven's Metagross, the metal monstrosity charged at the small dark type as fast as it could. Within the fraction of an instant, the dark type pokemon flew out of the way of his Metagross, and into the purple man. Since he was technically using an attack, the pokemon struck the man with all of his might, clearly damaging the man. The two of them barely made it into the portal before it shut. In fact, it appeared that several items that were on the man flew off as his pokemon attacked him into his escape.

Steven stood there for a few seconds, trying to take in what had exactly happened within the past five seconds. He was only brought back to the real world when he heard Aster's yelling at her trainer. He saw the pokemon panic, shaking the now unconscious trainer. Steven walked over to the black haired woman and knelt down, earning him a look from the now terrified Aster. Steven gripped her wrist firmly, checking to see if she still had a pulse. The steady throbbing confirmed she was still alive. But looking over her, she was clearly badly damaged.

"Whissss…" Aster whimpered, almost on the verge of tears.

"Don't worry, little one. She's still alive…" Steven reassured. Aster looked up at Steven with a look mixed between confusion, shock and relief. How something with pluses for eyes was able to emote in such a way, Steven was unsure. Metagross landed next to Steven and Aster, shocking the pokemon. It had just transformed back to normal. Aster stood behind Steven's leg, looking out to see the big silver pokemon looking down at both Steven and Zinnia.

"Metagross, go to the hospital. Tell them we've got a trainer down, with two Pseudo dragons as well." Steven ordered.

"Meta." Metagross shouted in his own metallic voice. Its legs fly up and into its body, allowing it to levitate off of the ground for faster speed. It flew off into the city, following Steven's orders.

"Whiss.." Aster whispered up to Steven in worry. Steven gave her a look and smiled.

"Don't worry. Your trainer will be fine." He assured, scratching the top of her head. Aster's face went from being filled with worry to peaceful and content.

As Steven was petting Aster, something caught his eye. A quick sparkle, faint, but definitely there. Steven shifted his gaze over to here the glint came from. It was on the ground, where the strangely dressed man once was. Slowly, he stood, taking his hand off of Aster's head, causing the small pokemon to look up at him.

"Hold on a second, I'll be right back… you stay here with your trainer…" Steven ordered in a calming voice. Aster followed his orders as he made his way over to the strange shining object.

Once Steven's shoes splashed in the watery shore where the strange man once stood, he knelt down, causing his pant knee to get wet. His gaze now could clearly tell what exactly it was that was making that shine. He reached his hand to pick it up when he heard sirens in the distance. Suddenly, his Metagross appeared right overtop of his head. He glanced back up at his pokemon, unconsciously grabbing the object.

"Thank you, Metagross." Steven thanked, placing the object in his coat.

"Meta" His pokemon replied. Steven took out his pseudo's pokeball and returned him inside it.

"You deserve a good rest." Steven calmly stated.

Steven, on the other hand, could not rest. He had a long day ahead of him. The ambulances came and took away Zinnia, her Salamence and her Goodra to the hospital. Steven had to ride with the trainer, because of her Whismur. He kept her at ease, assuring her that her trainer would be okay. There were points throughout the day when he questioned her recovery himself, but he quickly reminded himself how far medical technology had come. She would be absolutely fine.

She was checked into the hospital, along with her two other pokemon. Her Goodra had taken the least amount of damage, so a simple trip to the pokemon center and its healing machine was all she needed. Salamence wasn't so lucky, as he had to giant gashes in the side of his neck. Everything else was just battle damage, but that's what took a lot of effort on the doctor's part.

Steven was asked if there were any relatives that should know Zinnia was here, and who could take care of her pokemon while she was. The only person he could think of was her grandmother, but there was no way to contact her about this situation other than going in person. He decided to take in Zinnia's pokemon for the night and to take them over to Zinnia's grandmother the next day and speak to her about her pokemon.

The night approached quickly. Zinnia of course had to be kept in overnight due to how severe her injuries were. Aster wanted to stay and keep her trainer comfort, but the hospital wouldn't allow pokemon to spend the night with their trainers. At least, not while outside their pokeballs.

"Here are her pokemon, Mr. Stone." said a nurse, handing him all of Zinnia's pokemon, save for Aster, who stood next to him.

"Thank you, Nurse." He said, pocketing her pokemon, "I'll take them to her grandmother's tomorrow."

The Nurse nodded. With that, Steven kneeled down next to Aster and hoisted her up in his arms. He made his way home by foot, with Aster seeming to find comfort in his arms. Eventually, the two made it to his house. He opened the door and entered his dark house. Knowing where everything was, he made his way to the table and set Aster there before going back and turning the lights on. However, Aster reacted poorly to being put down. She whimpered and tried to make her way to Steven with her arms held out. She reached the end of the table and began to fall. Steven hadn't left very far, though, so he was able to catch her easily.

"Whoa, whoa, easy, girl. I just need to turn on the lights, okay?" He told her in a calm voice.

Aster nodded and listened to him. He made his way over and turned on the light, revealing his house to the pokemon.

They appeared to be in the living room of the house. The table Aster was on had all sorts of big, weird looking fossils and rocks. It was scooched up right against the wall, not really in the way of anything., In the middle of the room were two couches and a coffee table. There appeared to be on old CRT television on TV stand propped up against the wall.

"It's not much, I know, but it'll do until I take you to Zinnia's grandmother tomorrow." Steven assured Aster. Aster merely murmured lightly.

Steven lifted Aster up off of the table and placed her down on the floor. He gave her a pat on the head before stand back upright. The small pokemon waddled over next to Steven, and hugged his leg tightly. Steven chuckled.

"Well, aren't you an affectionate one." Suddenly, a loud beeping noise made itself heard. This caught Aster off guard and the Whismur jumped up at the sudden noise. Steven reached into his pocket.

"Relax, little one. It's just my PokeNav's alarm." Steven said, pulling out his PokeNav. He opened it up to see what the beeping was for. It was an alarm for the time. It was currently 8 o'clock at night.

"Oh, wow. I made it home just in time. My show is about to come on." Steven said, walking over to the couch. Aster followed him to the cushiony seat, trying her best to jump up onto the couch. Steven leaned over onto the coffee table in the middle of the room and grabbed the remote control for the television.

With the press of a button, the television turned on. It opened on a character with a square head adjusting their glasses as the camera panned to a pair of women, one tall and skinny, the other with a short and stout build.

"We…. are the Crystal…. Gems! We'll always save the day!"

Steven sat down on the couch while the theme song played. The show was a cartoon by the name of Steven Universe. Someone had jokingly told Steven it was a show about rocks and gemstones in order to get him to watch it and waste his time. Eventually, his curiosity did get the best of him and he gave the children's cartoon a watch. While it was nothing like he was expecting, there were a lot of qualities he loved about the show, such as strong female characters, interesting lore about the main characters and their kind and, admittedly, the shows use of gemstones. There were a lot of small things the show does with gemstones and characters relating to each other, and as an enthusiast of stones, he appreciated that.

Steven noticed something out of the corner of his eye as the theme song played. Aster seemed to be sitting right next to Steven, watching the show with him. The Whismur scooted over to get as close as she could to Steven before looking up at him with a curious face. Steven's eyes darted back and forth between the television and the pokemon.

"Do you want to watch my show with me?" Steven asked, somewhat unsure of his own question.

Aster looked at his confused face, tilting her head. Steven's eyes darted back and forth between her as the show's opening came to a close. Eventually, he decided to just sit back and let her decide whether or not she wanted to watch the show, or him. Eventually, the small pokemon decided to follow in Steven's line of thinking and began to watch the TV. Steven took a few glances down at her, finding her to be content with the show.

"Don't tell anyone I watch this show." Steven said jokingly.

"Whismur!" Aster replied wholeheartedly, not taking her eyes off of the television.

* * *

Zinnia slowly woke up from her unconsciousness, her vision blurred at she woke. The color white was prevalent, with a few small mixtures of yellow, light blue and some grays that merely looked like a darker shade of the already abundant white. As she awoke, she began to feel pain all across her body. She wondered why her body hurt as much as it did, taking a moment to remember the events that took place prior to her falling unconscious.

The last thing she saw before losing consciousness was Aster, who, from her blurred memory, was worried sick about her. And considering the fight she had just been through, she completely understood. She couldn't wait until she held her pokemon once again in her arms, and reassure her adorable pokemon that she was alright.

Her mind then shifted to Aster. Where was she? And where was Zinnia herself? As she slowly awoke, she began to feel things beyond pain. She felt something soft on top of her body, with something cushiony under her. She assumed she was in some sort of bed. In an attempt to get a better idea of her surroundings, she decided to listen for sounds.

She heard a faint beeping sound. A rhythmic beeping sound. She couldn't quite put her finger on what exactly it was she heard. She just heard the beep followed by a pause, followed by another beep and so on. She tried to focus on other sounds to get a better idea. She heard very faint sounds of the outdoors, with Wingull chirping and the wind blowing. But that was it. Given the mixture of both artificial and natural sounds, Zinnia managed to assume she was indoors, next to a window. She guessed that the blue and yellow colors in her vision were that out the outside.

Slowly, however, her vision came too. Blurs became clear and sharp. She was able to see that she was correct about being indoors and next to a window. The outside colors being that of the sky and the sun shining. The white and darker grays were the interior of the room she was in, which seemed very plain. Up in a shelf in the top corner of the room there was a television set. Small, but still useful. She glanced down to what she assumed was a bed and found her assumption somewhat was a bed, but the variant she hadn't guessed. It was clearly a hospital bed she was lying in.

The beeping seemed to be a machine next to her, which she assumed she was hooked up to to see if her vitals were working. She quickly began to wonder exactly how it was she got here. While she saw Aster before she fell unconscious, she wasn't sure who or what brought her here. Not the man who attacked her, that much she was sure about. As she pondered and tried to recollect her memories that weren't of her and the man's fight, she heard faint footsteps slowly approach the room, along with a door creaking open.

"Alright, let's just check up on-" Spoke a young man, walking into the room. His eyes widened slightly when he saw Zinnia awake, "Oh, wow. You're awake."

Zinnia glanced over to the man. His outfit didn't scream that of a doctor, more along the lines of a male nurse. Regardless of his occupation, it was clear that he was coming to check up on her, so she assumed he had a few answers.

"Yep." She responded, weaker than she would've liked to sound, "Had a pretty nice dream, too. Landed on a deserted island and turned it into a paradise for a year."

"Well, that does sound like a nice dream." The man said, chuckling.

"Yeah. It'd be nicer if I didn't actually spend a year in this hospital?" Zinnia said, the tone of her voice gesturing to the question of how long she had been in there. The man picked up on this.

"Oh, don't worry. Nowhere near that long." The man explained, "You were out for a week though."

"Really now?" Zinnia responded,

"Oh, yeah." The man replied, "Steven Stone was actually the one who brought you here. And it's a good thing he did, too. You were in pretty bad shape."

"That last one I was able to figure out. In a little bit of pain over here." Zinnia said, scratching the back of her head. It was at that point she remembered her pokemon. Specifically her Salamence and Goodra, who were in pretty bad shape.

"Wait a second. My pokemon… Did you by any chance also bring in a Salamence or a Goodra?"

"Oh, yeah. Goodra just needed a trip through the average healing machine, but Salamence got it rougher. Don't worry though. Both of them are safe and sound with Steven."

Zinnia blinked, "Wait, Steven has my pokemon?"

"Yeah. He said he was going to take them to your… grandma, I think? But he said he get back to us when he took them and he hasn't yet, so I'm not sure. I'll have one of our receptionists call him. Maybe if your pokemon are still in town, they can come and visit you." And with that, the nurse left the room, closing the door on his way out.

Zinnia was now left alone to reflect on the situation. She pieced together what had happened. Steven Stone came to her rescue from the masked man. And was now taking care of her pokemon after leaving her in the hospital to heal. That really only left one question in her mind. What became of the masked man? Did he escape? Or did Steven take care of him too?

She began to lift the covers from her bed, taking a quick look over her body. From what she was able to tell,she certainly was beat up. But she also knew she's had it worse. This was nothing she couldn't handle, and she definitely knew faster ways to heal then just some bedrest in a hospital. She unhooked herself from the IV and heart monitor before moving herself over, seething in pain as she tried to get up from her bed. Turning herself around was a bit of a chore, but doable. She landed her feet on the ground and stood up for the first time in a week. There was a sharp pain that coursed through her body. But from what she could tell that was more from not using her body for a week rather than the injuries that the masked man gave her.

She made her way to the window and looked outside. She had a tremendous view of Mossdeep City from here. She was definitely not on the lowest floor. She leaned over through the window to see she was a few stories high. She looked back at the heart monitor and the IV. Quickly, an idea began to form in her head.

"Okay, Stacy just gave the call to Mr. Stone." The man said, walking into the room. He paused as he saw the state the room was in when he walked in.

The IV and heart moniter were on the other side of the room, next to the window. Nearly every cable was unplugged and seemingly tied together in knots, with the bed sheets wrapped around the machine to make sure the cables still plugged into the machine didn't come undone. The TV in the upper corner of the room also seemed to be used as a weight, sitting on the cable on the windowsill.

"...They don't pay me enough for this."

* * *

"Okay, that's the last of this bag. Enjoy!" Steven said to most of Zinnia's pokemon, pouring out the last bit of pokemon food into five bowls. They all shouted in unison what Steven could only assume was "Thank you" in their native tongue, and began eating.

Steven kept Zinnia's pokemon over the course of the week. He had plenty of pokemon food on reserve for the first day and when he ran out, he decided to get extra so that Zinnia's grandmother wouldn't need to go out and buy a bunch of food for her pokemon. Steven underestimated just how much food these dragons eat. Multiple trips took place over the course of the week until he overestimated just how much dragons knew he couldn't just give an old woman this much pokemon food. And he knew his pokemon on their own wouldn't be able to eat this much. So, he decided to keep them until they either ate enough to dwindle down the current food supply, or until Zinnia got out of the hospital.

He secretly was enjoying the pokemon's company, though. They were so different from what he was normally used to raising. Which was somewhat ironic, considering his pokemon fit that sort of description for most people. His Skarmory and Aggron were the only pokemon that most could relate to with him, and at that, most people could only raise Arons due to their size and habits. He had three extinct pokemon, which he needed to listen to paleontologists in order to get anywhere with them. His Claydol was some sort of mysterious statue from an ancient civilization that Steven couldn't pinpoint, although, it seemed to be the easiest to care for. His signature Metagross was obviously a handful, as well. He also had a Carbink, but that was more for research purposes on a pokemon by the name of Diance that could apparently create Mega stones.

He looked over all of the Pokemon that were devouring their lunch. Salamence, Noivern, Goodra, Altaria and Whismur. Or, from what Steven was able to remember her name was, Aster.

The thought of why Zinnia had a Whismur crossed his mind several times by now after taking care of her pokemon for so long. The young woman was of Draconid decent, so the Dragon pokemon all made sense to him, even though three of them were native to a far away region. The Whismur was the only pokemon that didn't quite fit the bill.

Steven got up from kneeling down over to grab a pokeball on the table, coupled with a full bag of Pokemon food and a kiddie pool, not inflated, of course. It was time to feed Zinnia's Tyrantrum. This eight foot behemoth needed to be fed outside, and with a full team sized bag of Pokefood. He found this out the hard way early on, when he tried to feed her entire team all at once. The extinct pokemon managed to get into the ocean and started eating all the fish it could, which wasn't exactly a good thing, considering how many trainers around here raised fish pokemon. He gripped the three object and began making his way to the door, thinking to himself, "Let's get this over with."

Before he made his way outside, he heard his house phone ring. He walked over to it and picked up the device, speaking into it, "Steven Stone's House. Steven speaking."

"Ah, yes, hello, Mr. Stone, this is the Mossdeep Hospital." greeted a woman on the other end of the phone.

"Oh, hello. May I ask why it is you're calling?" Steven said, hoping it wasn't anything negative.

"Of course. We would just like to inform you that that woman you brought last week, I believe you said her name was Zinnia, woke up today." She explained, getting right to the point of her call.

Steven sighed in relief, "Oh, that's good."

"Yes, it is. But she's not 100% recuperated quite yet, just not in a coma anymore. We just thought that informing you would be best, considering we still don't have any other official family members in our database." The woman explained, with a hint of snark in her voice.

Steven sheepishly smiled, fully glad that he wasn't talking to her in person for her to see, "Yes, well, I apologize, I've been very busy with these dragons."

"That's fine, Mr. Stone." The woman said, "If you would like to come in later on today and visit her with her pokemon, that would probably brighten up her day."

"Of course. I just need to feed her Tyrantrum and I'll be on my way." Steven explained.

"Uhh.." The woman trailed off, "We don't have ceilings tall enough to fit a Tyrantrum in our rooms, so you may want to hold off on bringing him to visit."

"Dually noted." Steven said with a chuckle, "Alright, well, thank you for giving me a call."

"No problem Mr. Stone. Have a nice day." She replied.

"You too." Steven responded before hearing the dial tone of the phone. He hung up the phone, returning his thoughts to feeding Zinnia's tyrantrum. He looked over to all of the dragons happily eating, clearly ignoring his conversation with the hospital employee. He brought his fingers to his lips and gave out a loud whistle, earning their attention.

"Hey, guys, good news. Zinnia woke up today. After I feed her Tyrantrum, we're going to go and see her." Steven said with a smile on his face as he made his way to the door. He watched as her pokemon lit up with excitement. Aster jumped with joy, Altaria and Goodra cooed and gurgled with happiness, coupled with screeches from her Noivern. Salamence merely held a large smile on his face before resuming his meal.

Steven's smile remained as he gripped the door handle tightly. When he opened the door, he was greeted by the sight of Zinnia standing right at his doorstep. Actually, she was gripping the door handle and was kinda leaning into the door, so when Steven opened, she descended accordingly, still gripping onto the door knob. Steven jumped from the Draconid's sudden appearance, barely able to catch himself. After about a second, the silver haired man lost his balance and fell over. He groaned in pain from the fall, with Zinnia looking right over him.

"Oh, stop groaning, you'll be fine. It's not like you were attacked by some crazy man's pokemon." She said, walking right inside Steven's house, stepping on his stomach with her foot. Steven yelled in pain from the sudden weight pressed up against his stomach. Zinnia was greeted by Aster jumping right up into her arms. Zinnia shouted in pain as she gripped her pokemon, being pushed back to the wall. She slowly slid down to the floor, her pokemon nuzzling up against her.

"Aw, hey, Aster! Were you a good girl for Sylvester Stone?"

"It's Steven Stone…" Steven said, getting up from the ground, "What are you doing here? Shouldn't you still be in the hospital?"

Zinnia quickly attempted to stand up, still showing signs of pain, "Ah, Draconids are fast healers. Besides, I couldn't stay away from my wittle Aster..."

She hugged Aster tightly, with the Whisper pokemon cooing happily. Zinnia herself winced a little bit, showing clear signs of pain to Steven.

Steven Sighed, "Okay, you're clearly still in pain from that man's assault. We need to get you back to the hospital…"

Salamence roared right behind Steven, making the silver haired man jump in surprise, not to the same degree as before, though. He looked behind himself to see the dragon with his food bowl on his head. Steven lifted it off of his head, "Thank you, Salamence." He turned back to Zinnia, "Now, then, we need to get you back to the hospi-"

Steven was once again cut off by the roaring of the Salamence, he slightly jumped, though not as visual as before. Salamence began walking over to Zinnia, lowering his neck so his face could be at her level. She lifted her hand and began scratching the fins on his head, "Oh, did you miss me too?"

The Salamence growled softly, almost making a purring noise. Steven walked around the dragon pokemon and placed his bowl on the table.

"You know, you've raised your dragons well. Except for that Tyrantrum. The Dinosaur got into the ocean and tried to eat other people's pokemon." Steven said, kneeling down to collect the other dragon's bowls.

Zinnia lifted herself on Salamence's neck, "Yeah, he does that whenever he's hungry. Meat eating pokemon don't really like normal pokefood…" She scratched the top of Salamence's head, "Old Mega 'Mence here's a lot easier to deal with, considering he was raised from an egg."

"Pokemon raised from eggs tend to be easier to deal when it comes to food, from what I hear. Don't have a lot of normal, food-eating pokemon." He began to walk out of the room, "I'm going to take these into the kitchen and wash them. You can get reacquainted with your pokemon before you go back to the hospital."

"Okay, Simon."

"That's… still not my name." Steven said, exiting the room.

He casually walked up to his sink in the kitchen and began washing the pokemon bowls. Most people would have placed them in the dishwasher, but sadly, Steven did not own one. It was an embarrassing fact for him, but it was the truth. It's not that he lacked the funds, or anything like that, it was more he was always getting sidetracked. There were days when he said he would go out and buy a dishwasher, and various other things his house needed, but he somehow always got distracted from actually getting something, whether it be facing challengers, or studying strange murals or stones he came across.

As he washed, his mind wandered more to the Draconid. For a brief second, he was slightly afraid to leave her by herself. He half expected her to be long gone by the time he went back, not going to the hospital. At least, that what he would have guessed, given the way she acted in their prior meetings. She seemed very much like a know-it-all who wouldn't listen to anyone else.

But then again, why did he care? He didn't really know her all too well, and she seemed to be a little.. 'Out there' with her claims on other Hoenn's and the like. Why would he give two thoughts to such a girl? Even with Brendan's claims to her, there was really no reason for him to really care about her. He supposed it was simply his own caring nature. When he saw her, she was a beaten and battered mess. Even if she did some questionable things, it was only natural for him to feel bad.

He finished drying the last bowl before returning to his living room, somewhat surprised to see Zinnia still here. She was sitting on his couch, her only pokemon left out being Goodra.

"Did you get a lot of goop on any of Silver's furniture, sweetie?" Zinnia said, scratching the top of the slime covered dragon's head.

"Surprisingly no. Your Goodra's really well behaved." Steven replied, ignoring her getting his name wrong this time.

"Awww, Goodra. You had one job…" Zinnia said, with a smirk on her face.

Seven gave an unamused face to the girl, "Okay, well, I think it's time we get you back to the hospital."

Zinnia shot him a look, "What are you talking about? I'm not going back."

"You had a hairline fracture in your humerus." Steven explained.

"My sense of humor is perfectly fine. Although, yours could probably use some work." Zinnia said, holding her hands behind her head.

"That's not what I meant. It's a bone in your arm."

"I know. I still rest by my statement." Zinnia said, matter of factly. Steven 's eyelids lowered slightly, minorly annoyed. He sighed, deciding to let that topic rest for a second, wanting to move onto another topic. A more pressing topic, in his mind.

"Who was that guy who tried to kill you?" Steven asked, his face and voice growing slightly more serious.

"Dunno." Zinnia said, in a casual, slightly uncaring voice as she returned her Goodra to her pokeball, "He knew who I was, though, so he'll probably come back and try to get me. I'll be sure to ask him next time he tries to kill me, and not get an answer again."

"Could you be a little more serious about this?" Steven pleaded, "Someone nearly tried to kill you. You're really just shrugging it off like it was nothing?"

"Ah, what do you have to worry about? I'll be long gone from the region by the time he tries to strike again." Zinnia said, standing up from the chair, and stretching her limbs. She winced in pain as she did so, however, which Steven noticed.

"Wait, long gone? You can't seriously be thinking about traveling right now in the condition you're in, are you?" Steven asked in disbelief.

Zinnia began twisting her body around for exercise, still in pain, "Ah, I'll just go over to route one-oh-whatever and get myself a quick Clauncher Heal Pulse. They can be great healers, ya know."

"I cannot believe I'm hearing this." Steven said, placing his thumb and index fingers on his forehead, "You are seriously going to use a Clauncher to heal fractured bones instead of high tech hospital equipment?"

"Don't knock it 'til you try it." She replied, "Once I got a Tauros horn to the gut. Got a Clauncher, healed me right up."

"Oh, my lord..." Steven muttered under his breath. He removed his fingers from his forehead and closed his eyes, raising his hands in the air, "Fine. Don't go to the hospital. Go, travel the world, your injuries will only get worse. And then who knows what'll happen."

He felt a tug at his pant leg. He lowered his hands and opened his eyes, seeing Aster looking up at him, curiously. He knelt down and picked her up, "And I believe this is your Whismur."

In the brief instant where Steven held onto her before giving her to Zinnia, Aster seemed to lay into his chest. But Steven barely noticed this small sign of affection, as he handed the girl her pokemon.

"Now, I have something I need to study. So standing here and talking to you will only distract me from more important matters." He said, walking away from them.

Zinnia shrugged at his behavior. Clearly, she wasn't getting any respect from the former champion of Hoenn. Not that she was really asking for it. She had slightly more important things to worry about. Like getting a Clauncher, which was a good way to heal yourself, thank you very much.

"Alright, I will." She said, smugly, with a slight wince,"Come on, Aster, let's go to Route one-oh-wherever and get a Clauncher."

With that, she began walking out the doorway, with her Whismur in her arms. Just as she was about to walk out the door, however, she noticed something she had never experienced before. Aster seemed to be struggling out of her grip.

"Huh?" She sounded, as the purple pokemon seemed to want out of her arms. She kneeled down to the ground and let her pokemon go, "What is it girl?"

Aster began making a break for it inside the house, which took Zinnia by surprise. She fell over on her bum and watched as Aster hopped through the man's house.

* * *

With a huff, Steven closed the door to his private study. How irresponsible. She was going to travel to other regions with broken bones, only patched together by a crustacean's cannon claw. He took a deep breath in the dark room, intending to calm himself from that infuriating woman. He knew he had something better to do with his time then to argue with that lunatic.

He walked through the room, filled with many different tools, and stones to his desk. While the room was dark, Steven made his way through the area more than enough times to not need sight. There was a ceiling light fixture in the room, but the light bulb was broken, and Steven never got around to replacing it.

Steven pulled out the chair tucked away underneath his desk and sat down in it. He pulled his chair into his desk and turned on a nearby desk lamp, illuminating a very small portion of the room. He did not need that much light for his geological studies, just enough in the area he was working on.

With a delicate motion, he moved his hand up to a small, green and gold rimmed box. He slowly opened up the cube, showing off a gray stone to the light. It was about the size of an activated pokeball, and had grooves in it. One along the top, and two along the bottom.

Steven pulled out a small stand for the stone. It had three legs and a rounded base on top and bottom of the legs. The rounded stone fit perfectly in the base. He moved his hand down to a drawer in the desk and opened it before feeling around for his loupe. He pulled it out and placed the small magnifying glass on his eye, ready to examine the strange stone.

However, something interrupted his work. Light shone upon Steven from behind, with a loud door creek making itself heard to blinked in the middle of his study, glancing back to whatever opened the doorway. Nothing was at the level of what would be a person, so he glanced downwards until he saw a small rounded creature opening the door.

"Whis, whis!" Aster shouted quietly. She walked into the room and looked up at Steven, who only was confused at the pokemon's sudden appearance.

"Uh, hello there, little one." Steven said in a confused voice, as he removed his loupe from his face.

"Aster!" Zinnia said, loudly from the hallway. Steven and Aster looked back at the door, until Zinnia made her way in. She seemed to be hunched over a little bit, as she walked into the room.

"There you are, girl." Zinnia said, folding her arms and straightening her back. Suddenly, Aster leaped up into Steven's chair, taking the former champion by surprise. The small pokemon adjusted itself in Steven's lap, getting comfortable in her new seating position. Both Steven and Zinnia gave a befuddled look to Aster, clearly confused.

"Wow. Aster's sure taken a liking to you, Stoner." Zinnia said, glancing up to Steven.

"It's just Stone." Steven said, bluntly, looking down at Aster. Aster looked up at Steven and murmured her name to him repeatedly. She extended her arms and leaned in forwards, giving Steven the biggest hug she could. Which was not very big.

"Awww, how cute! Aster's made a friend." Zinnia said, bending her knees to get down to the level Aster was on.

Steven couldn't help but let out a small smile, coupled with a light chuckle as he pet the small pokemon on the head, "Yeah...I guess she has."

Zinnia smiled at the sight. While she didn't have a lot of time to reflect on everything, she supposed she had to be thankful of Steven for taking care of her pokemon. Especially with how friendly Aster was with him. He didn't have to take on that responsibility, but he did. As she stumbled into these thoughts, something caught her eye. She shifted her eyes at the desk Steven was at and saw a strange, gray, circular stone on the table. She stood upright, causing Steven to break his gaze from Aster to notice the girl moving. She reached out her arm and gripped the stone, inspecting it.

"What's this thing?" She asked.

Steven blinked before replying, "It's a strange stone that the man who attacked you dropped before escaping."

Zinnia studied the stone, but in a very different fashion then Steven was. Not as in depth, just looking at the stone all around, turning it to look at other sides. She gave it a good flick with her finger, causing Steven's eyes to widen a bit.

"Please, be careful with that." He said with a small sense of urgency.

"I am…" Zinnia said. She slowly brought the stone closer to her face, leading Steven's eyes to it. She then opened her mouth wide and attempted to bite into it. Steven panicked, his hair standing straight up. He immediately reached for the stone and ripped it out of her hand, and, by extension, her jaw.

"That is not being careful!" Steven shouted. He glanced over to the side of his desk and reached his hand out for a spare cloth. He carefully wiped away what little slobber Zinnia left, and prayed she did not leave any bite marks. Thankfully, she didn't. Steven sighed with relief at the sight of the stone not being damaged.

"What's the big deal about this rock?" Zinnia asked, leaning in beside Steven's face to get a closer look at it. Steven leaned away from Zinnia before speaking.

"The big deal is that there's nothing else like this on earth!"

"Really?"

"Yes, really!"

Zinnia looked at the rock closely before standing back upright, "How do you know that?"

Steven remained silent for a second, looking up at her from his chair. He carefully placed the stone back onto the base, "Because, I've been studying it. It's a mineral that's not on any of the periodic tables. Not of this world…"

Zinnia turned her gaze to it, "Think it might've come from the meteorite?"

"Maybe…" Steven said, placing his fingers on his chin, "Brendan and the Space Center have given me pieces of the meteorite for my own personal collection, though, and that's just filled with the usual elements one would find in meteorites. This is something entirely different."

"Whismur, Whis…" Aster said, turning her attention from Steven to the stone. Aster jumped up onto the desk, earning a surprised shout from Steven. She stood beside it, eyeing it closely, until she turned to Zinnia and began speaking to her in whises, murs and the occasional mum.

"What is it, Aster?" Zinnia asked, bending over to get a closer look at her pokemon. She got hearty replies from her pokemon, all of which Steven could not understand. There were plenty of gestures toward both Steven and Zinnia

"Whis! Mur! Whis!" Aster shouted at the top of her tiny voice. She gestured to the stone and then pointed to Zinnia and Steven. After that, she began pounding her ears together, making a small chuckling sound. She gestured once more to Steven before moving her nubby arms to Zinnia

Zinnia stood back up and placed her hand on her chin, humming as her pokemon tried to explain things to the both of them. Steven looked over to her and asked, "Do you have any idea what she's saying?"

Zinnia responded with silence. Nothing more then studying her pokemon's actions. She stepped forwards and reached once more for the stone. Steven's eyes widened as she gripped the stone and brought it close to her face.

"Please don't bite it again." Steven asked, his eyes as wide as they could be.

"Relax, I already did that." Zinnia said, turning her back to Steven, but keeping the stone in his sight. This did not do anything to help Steven from worrying. He heard the small noises from Aster and glanced over to her once more. She seemed to be pointing to Steven and then gestured her arms to Zinnia. She again pointed to Steven and glided her arms to Zinnia once more as well. She repeated this gesture over and over again.

Steven followed her arms back up to Zinnia, who still appeared to be studying the stone. Out of the corner of Zinnia's eye, however, she was studying Aster's actions. She followed exactly what Aster was saying, her actions clearly dictating one idea, and using the stone as a good basis for her reasoning, along with the ear pounds from earlier.

"You said that guy who attacked me dropped this rock, right?" Zinnia inquired, looking back at the stone.

Steven blinked at her statement. From the tone of her voice, she already knew the answer and was just leading her on to whatever point she might have, maybe from Aster's idea. He merely nodded and replied, "Yes, that's right."

Zinnia began turning around to face Steven, pointing to the stone in her hand, "Well… judging by this thing's size and shape, it's not something that he'd accidently pick up, or would get stuck in his shoe or whatever..."

"You're implying he would know exactly what this stone is." Steven announced, standing up.

"Well, maybe not exactly… But he probably has a pretty good idea of what it is." She informed, glancing down at the stone. She looked back to Steven, with a toothy grin, "And considering he pretty clearly wants me dead, that means he'll probably be back to finish me off."

"Are you suggesting we use you as bait?" Steven questioned.

"If you're suggesting serving me on a silver platter, smothered in gravy, with an apple in my mouth like a Christmas Spoink, then no."

"That is... a _very vivid_ image, but not in any way what I was suggesting."

"Okay, good. Anyways, my idea is much simpler than that." Zinnia explained, "Given how severe he seemed to be attacking me, I think it's pretty clear he really wants me dead. Enough to probably follow me out of the region. Or, if I stay, hit up a hospital full of innocent civilians."

"Oh, my…" Steven muttered, "I didn't even realize that. Going straight to the hospital to finish you off would put many lives at risk…"

"Exactamundo. But if I go, he'll probably follow me to wherever I go to. If I'm on my guard, I can probably take him down by myself." Zinnia boasted.

Steven's eyes rolled at this egotistical statement. But just as he was about to speak up, Zinnia continued.

"Or… if you come with me, we can both take him down." Zinnia said with a smirk on her face.

"What? Come with you?" Steven said.

"Yeah. He comes in, tries to attack me, you come out, boom! We've got him cornered, beat up a would-be murderer, ask him about the stone, and then we're on our merry way." Zinnia explained, "Besides, it'd be a real cool way to go out and see the world, y'know?"

Steven remained silent for a few moments, staring into her eyes. Within her crimson gaze, he could see a small twinkle. A plea, to go with what reason, he was unsure. Steven felt a grip on his hand, causing him to break eye contact. Glancing down, he saw Aster holding onto his pinkie and ring finger with both of her hands, and looking up to him with the same look Zinnia was, only more intense. Which Steven was surprised at, considering how vastly different the Whismur's facial structure was in comparison.

With his free hand, he brought his fingers to his chin, rubbing it in thought. His gaze shifted away from the Whismur and downward, clearly not focusing on anything, as if spaced out. His thoughts raced back to a moment he shared with Wallace during the aftermath of the meteorite incident. Steven had spoken to him about wanting to travel the world and see what lies beyond Hoenn. He offered Wallace a place as his successor in his own missing place, but would this truly be the right time? And under the right circumstances? Seven would've wanted to travel with no worries on his back, no weight on his shoulders, and this would certainly be as such.

And then there was the matter of Zinnia herself. While the look in her eyes seemed innocent, could he really trust her? She was obviously really full of herself, and most likely would lead them into peril and danger with her rash actions, even if they were of good intent. Then again, she would be doing those things even if he didn't accompany her, and would be far more likely to get herself hurt, at least in her current state. No doubt even if she did encounter the masked man, he would easily finish her off, considering he took down two Pseudo Legendary dragon pokemon.

That would also mean that the man would get away, scott free, if he did succeed, unless Zinnia were crazy enough to strap Voltorbs to her chest and blow him up with a death hug. Which, in Steven's own mind, wouldn't be too far off from what she would do. But, if she did die while fighting him, then in the back of Steven's mind, he felt he would be somewhat responsible. He could've gone with her and prevented this, and captured the criminal. Even though he has no obligation to her, it would still nag him in the back of his mind.

Zinnia snapped her fingers in his face a few times, "Hey. Yoo-hoo! Earth to Sterling Stone?"

Steven was abruptly brought back to reality, waving her hands out of his face, jerking his finger away from Aster, "Ugh, it's Steven!"

Steen glanced around his setting from his thought provoking state and noticed one thing different. Zinnia's hand, extended to him.

"Whaddya say? Wanna travel the world?"

Steven stared at her intensely, "I'll…" He stopped himself, before sighing and closing his eyes, "I need to make a call. Go wait in the living room and I'll be back with your answer."

Zinnia lowered her hand and nodded. She reached out for Aster and picked her up, "Come on, Aster. Let's let the silver haired pretty boy make his calls."

Aster replied to her with a light murmur and laid into her chest, sweetly. Zinnia stepped out of the room, leaving Steven to himself. Once she exited, he sat in his chair, placing his elbows on his desk and his fingers interwoven, using his combined hands to prop his head up by the forehead. His mind began to ponder all the possible events that could happen. Good and bad, everything raced towards him. Her death, the masked man, his own involvement, what dangers he could get into, the stone...

He sighed, removing his arms form the table. He reached down into his pocket and pulled out his phone. He stared at it for a few seconds before pressing in a few numbers into the device.

* * *

A phone rang throughout the house, it's annoying ringtone begging to be silenced by someone answering. Its prayers were answered as someone picked up the object and brought it to their face.

"Hello?"

"Brendan. It's me Steven." Steven said to the current champion of Hoenn.

"Oh, hey, Steven. How are things going in Mossdeep?" Brendan asked.

* * *

"They're going okay…" Steven said, trailing off a bit, "Listen, I called to ask you a couple of questions…"

"Is this about Deoxys?" Brendan asked

"Who?" Stevne asked, before quickly reminding himself of what exactly Deoxys was, "Oh, you mean the alien?"

"Yeah. Listen, I know the Mossdeep Space Center wanted me to come in every so often to do research, but I'm kinda in the middle of doing something important with him..."

"Relax, I'm not calling on behalf of the Space Center."

"Okay good..." A shattering sound was heard on the other line before Brendan shouted.

Steven jumped a little, "Brendan! Are you alright?"

"Huh? Oh, yeah, sorry, Cobblepot just dropped a bowl of popcorn."

"Popcorn?"

* * *

"Yeah, popcorn. Me and the team are going to be watching alien movies all night long with Deoxys. I've sat him down and had a talk with him about how they're all fictional, but to tell us if there's anything he recognizes from the movies." Brendan explained to Steven, kneeling down and picking up pieces of popcorn and glass off of the floor.

His Numel, Cobblepot seemed to be trying to help, lowering his neck and picking up pieces of popcorn with his mouth. Popcorn and glass.

"Cobblepot, stop eating, you're going to end up eating glass." Brendan shouted, lightly smacking the numel on the forehead. It looked up at him and bleped loudly.

* * *

"Wait, that's what's urgent?" Steven asked, walking across the room.

"Well, it's urgent if the Space Center wants to study him right now..." Brendan explained, "Cobblepot, stop. Just go get Dad's Vigoroth."

"Okay, well, I didn't call about the alien. Deoxys you said his name was?"

"Yeah.. The Space Center thought I was being smart, because of his basis in DNA or whatever, but I just thought it sounded cool." Brendan explained, "Anyways, what were you calling about?"

"I was calling to ask you a few things. One a favor, and the other, I guess it would be best put under opinion?"

"Okay. Shoot."

Steven peeked out of his room and down the hall to the living room where Zinnia was, this time in clear view of the black haired girl. She didn't seem to be paying too much attention to him, though, playing with her Altaria's fluffy wings with Aster.

"How much would you say you trust that Zinnia girl?"

* * *

Brendan closed the door to the pantry with a broom and pan in his hands, the phone being held by his shoulder, "Zinnia?"

"Yes, the black haired girl from the meteorite event."

Brendan began sweeping the contents of glass and popcorn off the floor as he spoke to Steven, "Like, what? Trust her with my pokemon, or my Secret Base or…"

"No," Steven sighed, "Listen. I found Zinnia beaten on the shores of the city with someone who had this strange, one-of-a-kind stone."

* * *

"Beaten? You mean, like, in a pokemon battle?"

"If it was a pokemon battle, then he clearly used the pokemon on her after taking down her Goodra and Salamence."

"Whoa… seriously?" Brendan said in disbelief.

Steven nodded, even though he knew Brendan couldn't see him, "Yes. I had to take her to the hospital. She's recuperate some, but she's still hurt."

"Tell me where the guy is, and I'll bring him in!" Brendan shouted.

"He disappeared shortly after I found them." Steven explained, "But that's not why I'm calling you… Zinnia had an idea about luring the man out. She said that if we traveled together, that when he struck again, we'd both work together to take him out…"

"Okay, yeah. That seems like a good plan." Brendan responded.

Steven remained silent for a few seconds before replying. And when he did so, he started with a sigh, "... Brendan… I need to know if I can trust her… I'm not about to go off on some sort of grandiose adventure with someone I can't put my trust into. And I'm asking for your opinion on the matter, because you're the only person who gave her any sort of chance, and, well… I do respect your opinions. You are an amazing prodigy, able to capture the Super Ancient pokemon, turned two eco-terrorist organizations to good, the current champion and apparently the Lorekeeper… you have quite many accomplishments."

* * *

"So I ask you, Brendan. Do you trust her? Can I trust her?"

Brendan stood up from kneeling down as he began to speak, "Well, I mean, yeah.I don't see why you couldn't…"

"Brendan, I'm being serious." Steven replied with a stern tone, "With how this lunatic acted, there's no doubt in my mind that he'll try and do something again. But with her still being injured, she could get killed by just the wrong step hiking up a mountain."

"Then go with her." Brendan retorted simply.

* * *

"Brendan, I'd be going on a trip around the world with someone I barely know, and the only encounter I've had with her was when our plans conflicted." Steven continued, slowly losing his patience, "And when she saw what our side was doing, she outright destroyed what we were going to use."

Steven leaned against a wall, rubbing his temples as Brendan spoke to him, "She had her reasons for that."

"Well, she could have explained them a little bit, then." Steven said, his tone getting more and more frustrated.

"Then… I don't know, don't go." Brendan said, unsure of what to reply with.

"But if I don't go she could get hurt or worse! And if I do go, I could get hurt or worse!" Steven said, beginning to shout. Slowly, he slid down the wall he was leaning against, until he sat on the floor and said simply, in a defeated tone, "I just… I don't know what I should do… She's going to do whatever, and I can't stop her from doing so..."

Brendan gave a sigh of defeat, "I-... I don't know, Steven…"

A moment of silence passed as many different scenarios flew through Steven's head. One involving seeing her turn up dead on the news and feeling a haunting guilt. Another involving him lying injured in a forest somewhere. One where his family and friends went to his funeral. And one where everything just turned out fine and all right, with the man being brought to justice. And another where Steven decided to put his foot down and have her go back the hospital, only to wake up the next day with the hospital under attack from that psychopath. One more where Zinnia would turn up on his, or someone else's doorstep, beaten and bloody, where she would either be rushed to the E.R. or bled to death on the couch. Many other scenarios came and left his head, almost being unbearable. Within these scenarios, Brendan came up once every so often, considering he was the only other person to have any form of connection that Steven knew about.

It was then when Steven snapped back to reality. One question entered his mind.

"Brendan… why did you trust her?" Steven asked, simply, glancing over to side the phone was on.

* * *

Brendan's eyes widened at this question, "What do you mean?"

"During the Meteorite event, you were the only one who seemed to hear her out. In any way, really. Many of us simply brushed her aside as a lunatic, but not you. Why?" Steven explained simply.

Brendan looked around, trying to collect his thoughts. He glanced around the room and saw his father's Vigoroth sweeping up the broken shards of glass on the kitchen floor. He didn't really notice it, however. He more or less was gazing out, trying to look for a good answer. His mind replayed the events that happened about two weeks ago, trying to find a specific reason, or multiple reasons.

"I Dunno… I just… kinda did." Brendan replied, blankly.

"You… just straight up trusted her?" Steven repeated.

"Well, yeah. I first met her outside my house after I became champion. She seemed pretty nice to me when we met. And then May's mom shouted so loudly I could hear her from across town." Brendan explained.

"When she stole May's keystone." Steven muttered.

"Yeah." Brendan confirmed, "I wasn't stupid. I knew it was probably Zinnia. When I confronted her again, she wanted to battle with me and... I dunno. The look in her eyes when we fought… I dunno what I saw in there, but whatever it was, it made me trust her."

* * *

Steven pondered this for a moment, tapping his finger to his chin. Simply looking into her eyes? That's all Brendan needed? Well, according to many, eyes were the windows to the soul. And from earlier, when he looked into hers… he saw some sort of sparkle in them. But was that really enough for him?

"Honestly, though, I'm glad I did trust her. If we had just teleported the meteorite away, it would've just come back in another 1,000 years." Brendan continued.

Steven blinked when Brendan spoke, "Oh, right. Cozmo said something about that alien pokemon trying to get to earth… "

"Regardless as to what happened during that whole event, I do believe Zinnia was right about the whole thing, more or things she just had to keep a secret from us… some for personal reasons, some for other reasons… in hindsight, I think I can safely say that one of those reasons is so we wouldn't try and lock her up in the looney bin."

"Wait, what? Why would we have tried to lock her up?" Steven inquired.

"Well, y'know. That plan that we had come up with that we knew would work wasn't gonna work, because the meteorite would just come back. But the other plan of riding a legendary dragon into space… now that's a totally sane plan."

Steven chuckled at Brendan's comment. Looking back on it, it did sound totally insane. Even after confirming that two other ancient mythical creatures existed.

"So, to answer your question from earlier, Steven…" Brendan continued, "I do think you can trust her."

"You truly mean that?" Steven asked, wanting confirmation once more.

"Yes, I do." Brendan confirmed for Steven, "Remember, I was the only person she decided to let in on the whole operation she was going for. While we hit some snags, I think I made the right call. And I trust you can do the same."

Steven smiled, before breathing out a sigh of relief, "Thank you, Brendan. That was all I needed to know."

"No problem." Brendan replied, before coming to a question, "Hey, you said, you wanted advice and a favor… What was that favor?"

"Well, I will be gone with Zinnia for a while. I was wondering if you could just… keep an eye on Hoenn for me while I'm gone." Steven asked.

A moment of silence passed before Brendan spoke, "Um… can that wait until tomorrow? I still got the whole movie marathon with Deoxys..."

Steven chuckled once again at Brendan's comment, "Sure, Brendan. I'll be heading out first thing in the morning."

"Okay. I'll try to see you two off. Might bring Wally if he's up for it. See ya!" Brendan farewelled. With that, the familiar dial tone of Steven's phone sounded. Steven hung up his phone and placed it in his pocket. The former champion got up onto his feet, looking out to the room Zinnia was in once more. She seemed to be curled up with her two pokemon, Aster and her Altaria. He gave a small smirk as he began to make his way out to give her the news on his decision.

* * *

Zinnia laid comfortably in the wings of her Altaria. The soft, cloudlike feathers provided much comfort for the Draconid and her Whismur. Many cold nights were warmed up by her cloud-like body. While she was unconscious for the duration of her time at the hospital, she knew that the hospital bed was nowhere near as comfortable as her Altaria's wings. This, coupled with the company of her Whismur, relaxed her incredibly. The bird-like dragon's head perked up, as she heard steps enter the room. She looked down to Zinnia and cooed, in order to alert her of the new presence. Zinnia shot one eye open to see Steven entering the room. Zinnia quickly shot up from Altaria's wing, sitting upright, and startling Aster, who jumped at the sudden movement.

"So, you got an answer?" She asked, in a stern, but upbeat voice.

"Yes, I do." Steven said with a nod, "I'm-" He was quickly interrupted, however, by the ringing of his home phone. Altaria jumped slightly at the ring, looking over to it, along with everyone else. Zinnia reached into her pocket and brought out Altaria's pokeball, returning her inside. Steven held up a finger to Zinnia, walking over to the phone.

"Hold on a second... Hello?" Steven said, picking up the phone and answering it.

"Um, yes, hello. This is the house of Steven Stone, right?" Said the familiar voice of the hospital receptionist, although, more frazzled than before.

"Yes, this is Steven." Steven replied.

"Uh, yes, we called you earlier about the girl you placed in the hospital over a week ago-Oh, my goodness, I can't believe this happened…" The receptionist said, breaking her professional persona for a brief moment, "She… seems to have escaped."

"Yes, I know." Steven replied, simply.

"W-... Wait, you do?" She questioned.

"Yes." Steven explained, glancing back to Zinnia on his couch, "She's here in my house with me."

Zinnia's eyes slightly widened upon hearing herself being referenced. She played closer attention to Steven's phone, trying to make out whatever words were coming out, which was difficult, thanks to the more old styled phone giving lower audio quality, but somewhat manageable.

"Oh, Thank goodness…" The receptionist said with a sigh of relief, "We had thought she had escaped and gotten herself hurt." She quickly caught herself and asked in a more stern and concerned tone, "She isn't hurt, is she?"

"Not from anything recent." Steven assured.

"Excellent. Then you can simply take her back to the hospital where we can continue to treat her, with some more security divisions, of course."

Zinnia's eyes widened ever more slightly. She was able to catch the woman telling Steven to take her back. Her brow furrowed slightly as well.

Steven's eyes, on the other hand, seemed to soften. The alternative of simply leaving Zinnia with higher care presented itself to him on a silver platter. But while they were more likely talking about security to make sure Zinnia didn't get out, he was more concerned of someone getting in.

"I'm afraid I won't be doing so, Mrs…" Steven said, trailing off in his voice to get a name.

The receptionist was caught off guard by this statement. Confused, she replied with her name, and then a question, "... Uh, just Stacy, Mr. Stone. But...you do realize that she hasn't fully recuperate, correct, sir?"

"Correct, Stacy." Steven replied, "but it has come to my attention that someone may be coming after her. I feel putting her in a hospital could put other lives at risk."

A smile crept up on Zinnia's face, at the subtle confirmation of him agreeing to her plan. She leaned back on the couch, placing her hands behind her head comfortably.

"Oh! You mean form the attacker that put her and her pokemon in there." Stacy replied, "Well, if you would like, we could transfer her to another hospital discretely."

Steven glanced back to Zinnia, eyeing her subtly bruised body. She definitely wasn't in traveling condition, and the idea of her being secretly moved to another hospital placed him at ease. He nodded, even though he knew he wasn't seen by the other party, "I would like that. Preferably to another region. But I'll personally be escorting her there myself if that'll be alright."

Zinnia's eyes darted toward Steven saying this. She could tell there was some sort of catch, now. She lightly sighed, deciding to wait now before making another judgement on the situation.

"Of course, Steven. We'll do the paperwork tonight and you can take her first thing in the morning to the new hospital."

"Thank you, Stacy. She'll be safe with me." Steven said. With that, the dial tone replaced the sound of the girl's voice. Steven hung up the phone before turning to Zinnia.

"So, judging from that conversation, you're going with me, but there's a catch." Zinnia predicted.

"I'm taking you to another hospital." Steven explained, "After you recuperate, I'll travel with you. But you're in no condition to just start hiking out in the wilderness."

"Alright fine…" Zinnia sighed. She knew he couldn't see the big picture when it came to her and her healing methods, but she decided to go along with him in this situation. Being transferred to another hospital was not a particularly good idea to her considering the other options, but if it meant him going with her… well, she would put up with it. "Clauncher's Heal Pulse would do fine, though."

Steven smiled at Zinnia accepting his decision, even if it was followed up by a snide response, "Well, I'll tell you what. I'll give Brendan a call and ask him to try and bring one over tomorrow before we leave, alight?"

Zinnia gave a smirk to Steven, imagining the look on his face when he would see her doing backflips after being treated, "It'd be nice to see him again under much less dire circumstances."

"Indeed." Steven replied with a smile on his face, "I should also probably call my father and tell him I'm leaving…"

"Sounds like a good idea, Stoner." Zinnia replied.

"It's… Steven... " Steven replied, pulling out his cell phone. He dialed a few numbers before placing the device up to the side of his face. The ringing of the phone was interrupted by the voice of Joseph Stone on the other line.

"Hello?" Joseph greeted casually. The phone was much easier for Zinnia to hear out of, not that she was really trying to. The phone's volume seemed to be turned up higher when the house phone.

"Hey, dad." Steven greeted back.

"Ah, Steven! It's wonderful to hear from you. How goes everything?" Mr. Stone asked.

"It's going well, dad. How are things at the corporation?"

"Oh, just going as usual, same as always." Mr. Stone replied, "Hey, I heard about what had happened last week in Mossdeep. You saved someone from some miscreant causing trouble."

"Yes, I did." Steven said, looking over to Zinnia as he spoke, "I wasn't able to bring that man in, but the woman I rescued is okay."

Zinnia glanced back at Steven, hearing her name. Aster jumped up and down on the couch, knowing that Steven was talking about her master. Zinnia smirked at her pokemon, before scratching the pokemon on the head.

"Oh, it was a lady, now was it?" Mr. Stone replied in a teasing voice, "Have you talked to her since you rescued her?"

"Yes, I have." Steven said, not entirely hearing the tone of his father's voice. Had he heard it, he probably would've left out what he was about to say, "She's actually here right now. Checked her out of the hospital just before I called you."

"Oh-ho-ho! Well, checked out your girlfriend and now the two of you are on a date." Mr. Stone teased.

Zinnia managed to hear exactly what Steven's father said and let out a snorting chuckle. She moved her gaze to Steven, which was coupled with her best attempt to not burst out into laughter. Steven's eyes widened when he realized she heard him. He removed the phone from his face and pressed a few buttons, turning down the volume. He brought the cell back up to his face as he continued to speak.

"No, Dad. She's not my girlfriend. She's actually the girl I was telling you about from the meteorite event two weeks ago." Steven explained.

"Really, now? Last time you were talking about her you sounded like you couldn't stand her."

"Yeah, well, I suppose I should give her a second chance, considering I'm going to be traveling around with her." Steven explained.

"Traveling around? You sure you're not dating?" Mr. Stone asked, tongue in cheek.

Steven rolled his eyes, "Yes, Dad. I'm sure. I'm transferring her to a new hospital out of the region tomorrow. We fear that the masked man that attacker her might go for the hospital to get her."

"Oh, my. I suppose that would be for the best. By why are you going along with her?" He asked his son, "This is something the hospital could easily do discreetly."

"Well, you see, I found this strange stone-" Steven tried explaining but was cut off by his father.

"Ah, okay. I see now. I don't even need to hear anything more."

"But, dad, this stone is unlike anything I've ever seen before." Steven said in an enthusiastic tone.

"Yes, yes, I know. You and your stones, "Joseph gave a laugh, "I swear, you'll go to the ends of the earth if it meant finding a Moon stone that was actually from the moon."

Suddenly, a series of knocks on the door were heard. The knock itself was rhythmed, along the lines of the ever popular Shave and a haircut tune to it. Steven glanced over to the doorway when he heard it.

"I suppose I would." Steven said with a laugh, walking to the door, "Anyways, it looks like I've got company. I should probably talk to you later.

"Well, you need to tell me when you're heading off!" Mr. Stone exclaimed, "I'd like to see you off before you leave."

Steven gripped the doorknob and turned it before opening the doorway to see the guest who wished to see Steven's humble abode.

"Of course. Zinnia and I will be heading-" Steven did not finish his sentence as his eyes widened, looking at who was standing at his front door.

Standing at the doorway was the masked man.

"Hey, I'm looking for a rock I may have dropped on the beach. It's not there, and I was kinda hoping you picked it up, y'know, because you're a rock collector and all."

The man said with a smirk. And with the snap of his fingers, the wall exploded. Debris flew everywhere in the now ruined house. Zinnia was flown in between the couches, which were now sandwiched together from the force of the exploding wall. Steven was back, letting go of his phone. His side hitting against a table before coming into contact with the wall. Behind what was once a wall levitated a blue mechanical creature with four large arms, three fingered claws on the end of each hand, combined with a deathly glare from its naturally blood red eyes, which were enveloped completely in a light blue aura.

"Steven! Steven was was that!?" Mr. Stone shouted on the phone, which was now lying on the ground near what was once the doorway. His voice sounded extremely worried, thanks to the sound of a giant explosion, "Steven, are you hurt!? Steve-!"

The phone was then smashed by the masked man's boot, The man's gaze focused on it. He rubbed the broken pieces of the phone into the ground, making sure he completely destroyed it. He shifted his eyes back up onto both Zinnia and Steven after raising his foot off of the mobile device.

"Fun fact about Metagross.." The man said, gesturing to the blue behemoth, "Mega Evolution apparently messes with its brain, turning Metagross into a ruthless killing machine. Pretty messed up stuff, am I right?"

Steven muttered to himself, looking over his now ruined house. Wood splinters and small chunks of brick everywhere, glass shattered across the floor, his couches were even crushed together. Subconsciously, he reached for a pokeball on his belt, gripping it as tight as he could in his weak hand. His eyes met with Zinnia, who appeared to be smashed in between the two pieces of furniture. Her body remained motionless, with her not making a sound.

"Z-...Zinnia…" Steven muttered, lifting up his hand towards her.

The next thing Steven heard was a snap of the fingers, right before he felt his entire body slowly rising up. His weak hand let go of the pokeball, having it fall to the floor with a clink. Zinnia began to move too, as psychic energy surrounded both her and Steven. She was pulled out from between the couches and lifted up into the air. Steven was brought to her level, allowing him to get a different view of his now destroyed home. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Aster, laying down on the ground amongst the rubble.

"Ast-" Steven was interrupted by the coughing fit of the draconid floating next to him. Blood spurted out of her mouth, as she tried to regain her breath from her most likely crushed chest.

A bright light flashed before the both of them, as the man released a pokemon from a pokeball. Coming out of the pokeball was a small, tree-like pokemon.

"Sudowoodo." The masked man barked, "Search the remains of the house. I want that stone."

The sudowoodo ran past Steven and Zinnia, down the hallway that led to Steven's studying quarters. Steven gritted his teeth, glaring at the man who was steadily approaching Zinnia. Zinnia's breath was heavy, with a few drops of blood trickling down from her mouth. She looked at the disguised man intensively, as he merely gave her a casual smile.

"Well, now isn't this a familiar sight?" The man bragged, as the two of them were face to face. His tone implied that he would've continued, had Zinnia not spat directly in his face. A mixture of saliva and blood blasted him right in the mask, with small drops to the two liquids landing on the lower half of his face. His smile faded as he dried his chin with his sleeve. He looked over to Steven, speaking to him instead of continuing with Zinnia.

"It's a good thing I've got this mask, right?" He said, pointing to his mask, which was now covered in spit and blood. Steven gave him an angered look The sheer casualness of this man's demeanor angered him. Destroying his home, causing grave injury, and he was just glad he had a mask on to shield his eyes.

The grunt of the Sudowoodo was heard as it made its way back to the group of humans. It ran at breakneck pace, nearly tripping over some sort of purple sphere, but catching it's balance before falling to the dirty floor. In its hands it held the gray stone that Steven had been studying. It handed the stone to the masked man, who snatched it out of the pokemon's hands before returning him to his pokeball.

"Welp, now that I've got this little trinket there's literally no reason for you two to be left alive. Metagross…" The man shouted, snapping his fingers before speaking in a deathly cold voice.

"...Crush them."

The Metagross bellowed at the highest pitch of its metallic voice as it began glowing bright blue. Steven began feeling pressure down on his body as the psychic aura surrounding him increased in intensity. Zinnia received this feeling as well, which hurt more thanks to her already massive injuries. The two trainers began to scream as they felt their bodies condense.

The masked man simply stood there, with a smile on his face. His masked eyes leering underneath the damp mask. He snapped his fingers once again, which caused a ring to appear behind himself, with the innards of the ring leading somewhere dark and ominous. The man knew better than to just walk through it though. He needed to stay and make sure that these two interlopers were dealt with. The portal lead to his base, so if they somehow managed to make an escape to it, they would be met with his forces on the other side.

"So, this is how it ends." He muttered, "Just being slowly crushed to death by a metal behemoth?"

His answer was nothing more than the pained screams of Zinnia. As if he were expecting something else to come out of her mouth.

"Ah, you gave me a heck of a fight last week, Zinnia. Much better then how you're ending here. I'll be nice and have that be your final battle with me in all of the history books." He said with a smirk, before turning his attention to Steven, "You on the other hand, will die here in history. Killed by a pokemon you're well known for using. Nice hint of irony."

Like Zinnia, Steven's reply was nothing more than pained shouts. The masked man's smirk quickly diluted and was replaced with a more curious frown.

"Is that Irony? I dunno, I never really got the concept." After pondering aloud, he made a few steps closer towards the two trainers.

"Oh, but look, here I am talking about writing concepts, and you two are dying. No, no, you want something ominous to be the last thing you hear."

Zinnia and Steven's eyes barely opened from the pain as they tried to look upon him. Their eyes scrunched tightly as they tried to look at him, both from pain, and fear that their eyeballs would pop out of their heads like a squeak toy.

"How about this? At least neither of you will live to see the shadow I cast on this world..." He spoke to them in a grave tone. Satisfied with his final choice of words, he glared at them as the two of them were nearing death. He could feel it. Seeing the life drain from their eyes. Truly, a perfect victory.

"Whis…"

The masked man glanced over to the source of the sound and saw a small purple pokemon. It seemed to be a tad familiar, with it's large ears and tiny face. It was scuffed up, as if it was caught up in the blast of the exploding wall. In its tiny paws, however, was a pokeball. It pressed the button on the pokeball, enlarging it, ready to release whatever was inside. The man blinked, before realising this pokemon was the same one behind Steven from before. Aster reacted quickly and released the pokemon, with it appearing behind the man. Steven, hearing the murmur and seeing the bright light could piece together what was going on, and reacted. With all of his might, he uttered a single command, praying that his vocal chords and lips weren't crushed by the Metagross' psychic grip.

"EARTH POWER!"

And within the fraction of an instant, everything changed.

Steven and Zinnia were down on the floor, catching their breath after being released from the Metagross' psychic grip. The man was merely looking behind himself, completely shocked to see that the Mega Metagross was now pushed back by about a hundred feet. The ground underneath their feet was cracked, and uneven. Floating above the ground was the pokemon that as released. A black pokemon, with strange body proportions and odd markings.

"Clay!-Dooooool." The pokemon bellowed.

The Masked individual merely stood there in awe, staring at the Claydol, completely taken aback by the sudden turn of events. He glanced back to Aster out of the corner of his eye, his fingers clenched tightly into a fist. His teeth gritted against each other. Victory was assured and then this little purple pokemon shows its ugly mug again.

"You.. little.." He muttered in a deathly tone, before turning to the whismur, "Son of a bi-"

The masked man was met with a swift fist to the gut without warning, sending him staggering back in surprise. He glared up to see Zinnia, barely standing, clearly banged up, but with her fist forwards, right where his gut was. Zinnia's blood red eyes glared at him, clearly burning intensively as she eyed him.

"She's a girl." she said, before letting out a roar as she attacked.

The man was pushed back as she tackled right into his gut. The back of his head hit the bottom of Claydol as she gripped onto his abdomen tightly. She lifted him up into the air and brought his head to the ground with extreme force. He felt the grip on his back loosen up as he fell to the floor. He was caught by the ankle, however and was quickly brought back up. His entire body smacked against the Claydol, Resulting in him letting go of the strange stone in his hand. The pokemon also floated a bit away from the two humans brawling. Zinnia quickly brought his foot down as the rest of his body slammed onto the rocky ground beside her. He shouted as his back collided with the jagged floor. He glanced up at Zinnia, who seemed to be barely standing. Yet, she just lifted him up and slammed him around like it was nothing, like he was a rag doll.

"What…. What are you…?" He muttered.

Zinnia stared at him, eying for a specific weaknesses to attack. The thought of ripping off that pointed mask and jabbing him with it crossed her mind, but she quickly discarded it, as that wouldn't do much damage. She did, however, eye his chest. It was clearly themed around a certain pokemon, with several pieces of cloth wrapping around that strange ring-like emblem. Taking a closer inspection, it seemed to be more than just an emblem. She wasn't entirely sure what exactly it was, though. So, she decided to find out. She lifted both of her arms and with a shout, she slammed her hands down onto the emblem, causing a huge electrical spark to jolt from it.

Steven barely was able to get to his feet. His Claydol helped him out a little bit, slowly lifting what he couldn't with its psychic abilities. He saw the strange stone on the ground in front of him. He saw the strange floating ring just outside the remains of his house. But Steven's eyes darted to Zinnia as she struck him on the chest and saw the electrical shock. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed something strange happen to the ring. It didn't seem to disappear. Instead, it seemed to be… flickering? The dark image inside the ring was being replaced by a picture of a forest. He wasn't exactly sure what was going on.

"No! My suit!" He shouted loudly. He quickly shifted his glance back at the ring, taking notice of its location shifting. He quickly looked back to Zinnia, who seemed to be chuckling.

"Hahahaha… So… that's your game, huh?" She asked, clearly showing exhaustion. Aster's ears perked up at the voice, as she slowly made her way to the center of the room. She glanced up to Steven and back to Zinnia standing over the strange man. Steven merely eyed her as she spoke,

"This device…. It somehow lets you control those portals you were using back when you fought me. Heh. And now that it's busted…" She said, glancing back to the portal. It still seemed to be there, but it flickered in between two locations. Somewhere dark and dingy, and a forest,, "...Well, I guess you have less control."

Just then, a whooshing sound was heard in the distance. She glanced over to where the sound came from, before being interrupted by Steven.

"That's the Metagross…. Claydol sent it miles away with its Earth Power, but it didn't knock it out." Steven explained.

The masked man smiled. Soon, he would be standing over these two once again. He just needed to buy some time. The Claydol wouldn't win against his Mega Metagross. Not with its moveset. It would faint from just one strike. All he needed to do it buy time. Which was now a little more dangerous then he would have liked. Thanks to Zinnia smashing his chestpiece, he couldn't fully control where his portals went.

"Claydol can take it down with just one more Earth power, I can tell…" Steven muttered.

The man let out a chuckle at this, with each of the trainers taking this differently. Steven took as villainous arrogance. As if just having a Mega Metagross would give him a win. Steven knew the ins and outs of Metagross, and its Mega. He knew that his Claydol could take it down no problem.

But Zinnia took it differently, as if he had something up his sleeve with the pokemon. You don't just let out a laugh like that after someone says they know something. No. And she could tell it wasn't pure confidence in his pokemon either. He had a trick. A gambit. And with the smirk plastered on his face, she could tell he had complete confidence that he would be walking away. Zinnia's thoughts raced as she tried to find a way out of this situation. She glanced everywhere, and then she took notice of the flickering portal.

Zinnia took action quickly. She lifted her foot and stomped on the device on his chest, causing even more sparks to fly. He shouted in pain as she lifted her other foot and spring boarded off of him to the side. Steven's gaze was glued to her, as she lept behind him and his Claydol.

The sound of the Metagross whooshing by made itself heard, as its screams began to fade in.

Zinnia quickly turned around and rushed to Steven. She grabbed him by the arm before trying to swing him over her shoulder as she made a mad dash ahead of him. He was taken aback by this, his eyes widening at the sudden action

The Metagross' screaming vibrated the very water it was hovering over as it sped like a missile to the destination.

Aster reacted quickly too, returning Claydol to its pokeball. Which wasn't exactly needed, but Aster thought she was being helpful. She quickly began to make a break for it with Zinnia. But before doing so, she ran past the strange stone and picked it up, holding it over her head.

The Metagross sped towards the land, the upward landscape being chipped off by the speeding pokemon. It didn't stop.

Zinnia ran away from the man, who seemed to figure out what exactly she was doing. He quickly lifted his arm, reaching out. Zinnia shouted as she raced forwards. Steven tried to get a view of his surroundings, and saw exactly where Zinnia was running towards. The ring. The man tried to close the portal, with his fingers clenching tightly to make a fist. The portal slowly began to close. With Aster on their heels, Zinnia made a dive into the portal. The ring shrank as they flew through it. They were about to be cut in two.

Metagross' bellowing shattered glass windows as it sped through the cityscape.

Aster saw the portal closing and reacted quickly. She jumped forwards with all of her tiny might, pushing them into the portal before it blinked out of existence, the trainers safely on the other side.

The Man's eyes widened as they escaped. His fist slammed against the floor as he muttered a curse to himself. They had gotten away, with that strange stone. For the second time. He took in a brief breath of air and exhaled. As he laid on the jagged floor, he noticed there didn't even appear to be a cloud in the sky. Which was at least nice.

Until Metagross flew into Steven's house, causing a miniature explosion to happen next to him. Much of the debris flew over him, but it shifted the nice moment he was having to one of mild danger. Now he had to actively get up and walk away, instead of teleporting away like he always did. He sighed.

"Course. This is just… not my week, is it?"

**Author's Note:**

> Would like to thank TraipsingExodus for coming up with the title. Pure genius title. not sure if he's on Ao3, but he's definitely on FF.net.
> 
> Remember to leave comments, because as a writer, that's my only form of sustenance.


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